Wednesday, January 28, 2015

I want to write about
getting old today. How about that for a great hook? Don’t worry, it all gets
better after I get that out of the way.

You see, I just turned 48. Forty-eight, no matter how you try to buff and shine
that sucker up, just doesn’t sound dewy and fresh unless we’re talking about
giant tortoises, bacterial spores, solar systems or along those lines. When octogenarian
millionaires threaten the inheritance of their adult children, the lady friends
who have gotten them to take leave of their senses are generally not perky
48-year-olds. So, I am getting old and there’s no way to spin that otherwise.

Bette Davis dryly observed that getting old isn’t for sissies* and for the most
part, I am at peace with both aging and not being a sissy. After all, what is
the alternative? Being a dead sissy, that’s what. As someone who was always
young for my age in terms of maturity, I still feel a little unsteady on my
feet sometimes when the reality of my age splashes cold water in my face and –
cliché warning, but it’s true - I immediately feel how rapidly the years have whizzed
past and it’s like I’ve suddenly been deposited at the end of a time warp or
I’ve just gotten off a Tilt-A-Whirl and I need to get readjusted to land because
I’ve got the spins. In those moments, as with dizzying carnival rides, the only
way to get reoriented is to sit down and breathe between my knees. When I look
around and notice how many of my contemporaries now have aged parents and are sorting
through and dividing up the acquisitions of a lifetime, at first I always find
myself shaking my head, thinking, “Isn’t this for people older than us?” Then,
no: This really is us. We were kids yesterday, though, weren’t we?

This is really turning out to be a buzz-kill, isn’t it? I promise, I will get
to some more uplifting stuff. The suspense is probably killing you, so I will
jump right into it.

On February 1, one exact week after turning 48, I will also mark a much more exciting
milestone: My 20th year of living as a vegan. On February 1, 1995, I
called my ex-boyfriend (current husband) and said, “John, we should go vegan,”
and he said, “Okay,” without even a pause and so over the course of a
sometimes-maddeningly imperfect first year, we did just that. Twenty is pretty
young but definitely venturing into elder territory for the length of time as a
vegan. I can say this for a fact now with twenty years of hindsight at my hind:
Going vegan was the very best decision I ever made, right in front of deciding
to go out with that smiling guy who wasn’t a jackalope (my ex-boyfriend/current
husband). Despite some eye roll-worthy claims to the contrary, veganism will
not give you eternal youth but it is a way to become renewed again and again when
the hope and promise of our ideals triumph over the defeatism and
cold-heartedness of custom.

With twenty years behind me, I can say that the only reason I’d want to live
forever is so I could keep doing this work for as long as necessary, which I
hope isn’t forever, because it is so damn fulfilling and important. Veganism is
not about checking labels, being vigilant and feeling out of touch with the
rest of the world (though those things are certainly part of the experience
sometimes); it is not about sacrifice, hardship or martyrdom (not even for a
moment). If I could get people instead to understand how incredibly empowering it feels to not be owned by corporations,
social pressure or habit, I will have done something worthwhile. So I am saying
just that – if you’re looking for meaning in your life and a sense of higher
purpose, going vegan will do this for you. I feel like I get paid back every
single day that I put more distance between the last time I told an animal that
a temporary pleasure of mine mattered more than his or her life. Twenty years
since the last time I decided that my taste buds were more worthy of being listened
to than the cries of another living being in anguish. Twenty years of rejecting
the cynical notion that because I am
allowed do something, this confers the right
to do it. This is an indescribably liberating feeling. At the end of the road,
though, it’s not about any of this.

It’s about him.

And her.

And them.

And, yes, us too.

What started twenty years ago as a desire to not inflict harm has evolved into
my life’s purpose. I have screwed up in many areas of my life but living as a
vegan is one thing that I have done right. I wake up with a passion for this
work and this deeply-held purpose every single day. Yes, I’m 48 but for the
past twenty years, I’ve felt renewed every time I get to say yes to my ideals. This
sustains me. I get to help create change from the right side of history. I
couldn’t be more honored and grateful for this opportunity I get to enjoy every
day of my life. I wouldn’t go so far as to claim that it keeps me young but I
will say that it keeps me at peace and this is worth everything.

Getting old isn’t for sissies; neither is living our truth but it is more rewarding
than anything I know.

*Yes, I understand that the
expression “sissy” is problematic. I’ve decided that I don’t care (one of those
perks you hear about that comes with age) and you can insert the word you’d
prefer.

Wednesday, January 21, 2015

At the risk of
sounding like a Colleen Patrick-Goudreau fangirl, well, I am a total Colleen
Patrick-Goudreau fangirl. I don’t think it’s too much of an overstatement to
say that Colleen is the vegan fairy godmother we all need, floating ear-level
to advise us in times of dispute how to be our most articulate,
calm-and-collected but confident selves; cheering us on; giving us the encouragement
to be a joyful vegan in this messy, flawed world and pouring us a tea and showing
us cute pictures of her kitties when it just gets to be too much. (Or is this
just in my imagination?) As a bestselling author, a popular podcaster, a speaker, a video creator and much, much more, Colleen
Patrick-Goudreau has really set herself apart with her powerful, positive-but-pulling-no-punches
advocacy that is understanding of the challenges individuals face while never
equivocating. This is no easy task. While acknowledging
the fear many people have of change, Colleen still closes the gaps in awareness,
deftly dismantles excuses like the vegan Superwoman and keeps her laser-sharp focus on the bottom line: by
empowering people to manifest their own convictions about compassion, she is
helping the animals, helping the people who are no longer consuming them, and
helping the planet become a more compassionate, more just and healthy place. Heady
stuff. Oh, plus she creates some pretty fabulous recipes, too.

With the audacious aplomb we’ve come to expect, Colleen’s new, revised book,The 30-Day Vegan Challenge: The Ultimate Guide to Eating Healthfully and Living Compassionately (which I just reviewed) takes a topic that feels daunting to many people regardless
of their culture and upbringing and helps them gain the know-how and skills to achieve the self-assurance over 30 days to emerge confident, savvy vegans who can
take on any challenge. This book is really an amazing resource for creating a more
compassionate world and if we didn’t already know that Colleen is an absolute
treasure for our community, we know it now. For these reasons and more, Colleen
is vegan rockstar royalty.

1. First of all, we’d
love to hear your “vegan evolution” story. How did you start out? Did you have
any early influences or experiences as a young person that in retrospect helped
to pave your path?

I – like most people
– grew up loving animals and intervening if I saw them suffering – but I was
taught to compartmentalize my compassion for them and to compartmentalize them
into those who we should care about and those we should use for our own pleasure.
I could have gone about my whole life desensitized -- or asleep, but
luckily I woke up and realized I was contributing to a culture of violence that
I would never participate in directly. So, I very naturally and joyfully
stopped eating animals and their secretions once I saw the violence I was
contributing to.

As far as early
influences, I really believe that we come into this world innately
compassionate, so I really think we already have a compass that leads us to our
compassion. It’s inside us the whole time -- even though we might not be
manifesting it outwardly and unconditionally. So, I think it was my own
compassion that kept calling to me, guiding me back to the instincts I have not
to cause anyone harm.

2. Imagine that you
are pre-vegan again: how could someone have talked to you and what could they
have said or shown you that could have been the most effective way to have a
positive influence on you moving toward veganism?

Such a great
question. I was about 19 years young when I started on this journey to
awakening. Perhaps if someone had given me a book a little earlier I would have
made the connection sooner. For me, it really was exposure to the truth about
our use of animals -- for consumption, in laboratories, for entertainment -
that opened my eyes and compelled me to change my behavior. So, I think
education and bearing witness is absolutely key.

3. What have you
found to be the most effective way to communicate your message as a vegan? For
example, humor, passion, images, etc.?

When people are
tuned into their compassion, they act from it, and their paradigm shifts. So, I
see my job as shining the light on the compassion that already exists in them
to enable them to have that paradigm shift. I’ve always seen my advocacy role
as a guide – giving people what they want – rather than as someone who dictates
what action should be taken. So, over the years as I was trying to find my
place and my contribution, I just kept asking the questions: “What am I good
at?” and “What do people need?” and I kept finding the answers. It’s not about
me; it’s about giving people what they need to make it possible to make the
changes I know they want to make.

So, I use everything
in my personal arsenal. Everyone has an arsenal. Mine comprises communication,
humor, language, history, literature, ethics, and practical tools. I taught
cooking classes and wrote cookbooks to give people the recipes they need to
make delicious food; I produced a podcast to answer all the questions people
have about the social aspects, ethical aspects, and nutritional aspects of
living vegan; I launched The 30-Day Vegan Challenge to guide people to making these changes confidently, healthfully, and
joyfully. My present and subsequent projects will continue to be driven by
“what tools do people need to make the changes that will reflect their values
of compassion and kindness?” As long as I can fill that gap with the skills
I’ve been given, I’ll do it.

4. What do you think
are the biggest strengths of the vegan movement?

The intention
to do the right thing.

5. What do you think
are our biggest hindrances to getting the word out effectively?

Small thinking.
Fear. Egos. Competition. Fear of success. Fear of other people’s success.
Judgment. Losing sight of the big picture.

6. All of us need a
“why vegan” elevator pitch. We’d love to hear yours.

When I realized I
was paying people to do things to animals I could never do myself -- things
that are the stuff of horror movies, I stopped participating. I’m vegan because
I don’t want to contribute to violence against anyone.

7. Who are the people
and what are the books, films, websites and organizations that have had the
greatest influence on your veganism and your continuing evolution?

John Robbins' book Dietfor a New America planted the first seed for me, but it was Gail Eisnitz, who wrote Slaughterhouse,
that truly opened my eyes. I was in awe of this woman who had the courage to
visit slaughterhouses and talk to the men and women who killed and dismembered
animals. I appreciated her strategy of asking the same questions to workers in
whatever slaughterhouse they were in so that her expose wouldn't be accused of
just focusing on "a few bad apples." And what struck me most by her
findings was the violent culture we're all supporting by paying people to kill
for us. These men and women were desensitized to the animal suffering and also
to their own compassion. Aside from the slaughter, which is horrific enough,
they hurt and torture the animals --- because they can. So, thanks to Gail
Eisnitz, I became vegan upon reading her book, and it changed my life
completely.

I’m grateful to
every person who documents the horrors we want to avoid looking at. Without
their bravery, we wouldn’t know what goes on behind closed doors.

8. Burn-out is so
common among vegans: what do you do to unwind, recharge and inspire yourself?

I’ve created a life
based on what I love -- not only in my work but in my personal life as well.
Although I’m not skilled at reading the signals that tell me to stop when I’m
running on fumes, luckily I have people in my life who remind me to do so. But
I have many ways I refuel -- I love spending time with my husband and watching
movies. I love running, hiking, traveling. I spend a lot of time in nature and
with my cats. Ultimately, I’m fueled by the people who tell me they’ve returned
to their own compassion. It’s the good in people that gives me hope.

9. What is the issue
nearest and dearest to your heart that you would like others to know more
about?

Really, my
overarching aim is to guide people to their own compassion so it’s reflected in
their behavior, and clearly I spend a lot of time talking about the animals we
raise and kill for human consumption because in terms of human actions that
directly impact animals, it’s the consumption of them (and their secretions).
It’s all part of the same goal, but our decimation of natural habitat and our
slaughter of wildlife to serve our desire to build, eat meat, and make more
room for ourselves just breaks my heart. And so, I keep trying to speak to the
heart...

10. Please finish
this sentence: “To me, being vegan is...”

“...just a succinct way
of saying I removed the barriers to the compassion that had been inside of me
all along.”

Wednesday, January 14, 2015

Be born. This is really
the most significant part and you can take comfort in knowing that if you’re
reading this, the biggest task is already behind you. You’ve got this!

Be raised in any number of homes and environments.
Meaning you may grow up as the child of hippies or hunters or business
people or politicians or schoolteachers. You will grow up in a rural community,
the suburbs or a city. Believe it or not, you don’t need to be raised on a commune
or by parents who met during an Earth First! tree-sit to grow up to be vegan.
It really doesn’t matter. You will still eventually go vegan.

Grow up eating “normal” food for your
family. In our house, it was macaroni and cheese from the blue box,
scrambled eggs, Lipton Ring-O-Noodle chicken soup, turkey and cheese
sandwiches, my grandmother’s brisket, hot dogs, Fudgsicles. Guess what: I grew
up liking those things and this still
did not stand in the way of me letting them go. Today – spoiler alert! – I’m a vegan.
You might grow up eating Greek food, Italian food, junk food, whatever. You
might hate vegetables. You will be pleased to learn that it need not interfere
with your eventual veganism. Phew! You may even learn to love vegetables. (Or
you won’t.)

Your books almost
all feature animals. Tenacious rabbits, clever foxes, irrepressible pigs, maternal hens,
endearing crocodiles and more are well represented. Many of your toys are
stuffed animals, some of your favorite songs are about animals and when you
draw, you often draw animals. You are taught that kindness to animals is a
virtue and cruelty to animals is immoral. Despite all of this, you will grow up
eating them, probably without even really being aware of it.

You may or may not have a household
animal or two growing up. You may or may not make a connection to this
animal that may or may not hasten your eventual veganism.

You will go to school or be
home-schooled. You will play. You will have lots of friends or not too
many. You will be very social or not very social or sometimes social. You will
learn your ABCs, how to tie your shoes, simple addition and to not put paste in
your hair. No matter your education, you will probably not learn much about the
animals you eat.

You will grow up loving nature or not loving it. You will spend your time
outside climbing trees or inside looking at books or riding your bike or your
best friend’s house or or the beach or the library. No matter your experiences,
you will still grow up to be vegan, so that's a relief.

You will feel a deep affection for other
animals or you will not feel this or you will feel this for some but not others. No matter your affection or lack of
affection for animals, this will not necessarily have a bearing on your
evolution to veganism.

At some point you will become an adult.
Maybe you’re already vegan.

Over time, you will become an outspoken liberal or be a staunch conservative or
be moderate or an anarchist or completely apolitical. You will be an
atheist, of faith, agnostic, spiritual or skeptical. You will date males or
females or both or neither. Whatever! Who cares? You’re still going vegan.

At some point
in your life span, you will have an epiphany or you’ll just connect the dots and
then you will go vegan. You will make the change overnight or it
will be gradual. You will have an influential friend or you will read something
or hear something or watch something that makes a deep impression on you or
maybe your roommate is a great vegan chef or your doctor says something to you.
You will go vegan for life or else you’ll quit and you’ll return to it maybe
more than once before it sticks.

Wednesday, January 7, 2015

I first discovered Emily Moran Barwick of Bite Size Vegan
some time last year and I was immediately taken by her smart, engaging videos that chomp down big, thorny topics into digestible portions, or, as she refers
to them, nuggets. I kind of imagine her as a human advocacy machine who can
take any vegan subject and resize it for optimal comprehension, like she's from The Jetsons but even way more fabulous.

Admirably, Emily is
able to do this most often in five minutes or less but never by dumbing down
the content. From talking about if eating animals is a personal choice to the strangely oft-repeated fallacy that vegans kill more animals than
meat-eaters, Emily manages to create content (and she creates a
lot of content) that is persuasive, smart, current and lightened up
with great touches of style and humor. Not everyone is going to sit down and
read an entire book and this is where Bite Size Vegan comes in handy, because she has done her research and so she
is able to tackle these subjects with a common sense and factual manner that
nevertheless cuts straight to the heart by always bringing it back to the
animals. Back at her website, she provides resources for those who want to
delve into subjects deeper. Like most things that look effortless, what Emily is doing at
Bite Size Vegan takes a ton of work and time. Please consider donating to her
Patreon page so she can continue her
important work and subscribe to get her fabulous videos.

1. First of all, we’d love to hear your “vegan evolution” story. How did you
start out? Did you have any early influences or experiences as a young person
that in retrospect helped to pave your path?

My journey to veganism is a bit strange in that it began
before I was even consciously aware of it in hindsight. My mother tells me that
around the age of four I started to refuse to eat meat. She says if I could
tell that something had ever been alive I would refuse to eat it.I’ve always been a huge animal lover and when
other kids were going door-to-door selling Girl Scout cookies, I was going
door-to-door educating about the plight of the mountain gorillas in Africa and
asking for donations to the Diane Fosse foundation. I was a very intense child
and I had a lot of anger for my own species. I simply could not understand how
humans could be so cruel and felt completely overwhelmed by the enormity of
suffering in the world, and powerless to make any significant change.

As far as my eating goes, as I started to learn about the
true nature of dairy and eggs - how mother cows are robbed of their own
children so that we can steal their milk and malelayer chicks are ground-up alive in an industry - I eliminated dairy
and eggs from my diet as well. This, I think, happened sometime in middle
school to high school.

2. Imagine that you
are pre-vegan again: how could someone have talked to you and what could they have
said or shown you that could have been the most effective way to have a positive
influence on you moving toward veganism?

I honestly don’t think I really needed any convincing to go
vegan - it seems to be a desire I had almost from birth, I just lacked the
knowledge to implement it. I suppose what would’ve been very helpful for me
would have been to have had a mentor or someone in my life who could’ve show me
how to eat vegan properly, and even more importantly, that I wasn’t alone in my
desire to fight for the animals and make the world a better place for
them.

What I try to focus on with pre-vegans is making a true
connection at an emotional level with what the animals are going through. I
think putting ourselves in the place of these beings and connecting with them
as equals is the fastest way to create a new vegan. One of the best ways of
accomplishing this is for someone to actually meet a survivor of the animal products
industry at a farm sanctuary. Actually looking into the eyes of one of these
survivors makes it very difficult to continue justifying their murder for
something as insignificant as a meal. I think it’s also important to show
pre-vegans that being vegan is not difficult. It’s not even revolutionary. It’s
very simple and incredibly logical - something that everyone can do regardless
of their backgrounds.

3. What have you found
to be the most effective way to communicate your message as a vegan? For example,
humor, passion, images, etc.?

Well, as I said in the last question, I do try to connect
with people at an emotional level, but it’s not always super intense. I use alot of humor in my activism. I find
that humor is a great way of lowering defenses so that we’re more open to
receiving important messages.

I try to balance humor with my extreme passion for the
liberation of all animals, along with research-based facts and well-placed
usage of underground footage and disturbing imagery. The humor, as I said, is
disarming, the legitimate facts lend credibility to my message and the imagery
really shows the reality of what’s going on and gives a voice to the animals who
are so often suffering and dying in silence behind closed doors. It’s a delicate
balance to try to maintain, but when it all comes together, I’ve found it to be
rather effective.

Also, there’s a reason that I chose the video format and the
platform of YouTube for activism. In today’s culture, we have a limited
attention span and we like things that are bright and shiny and moving - it’s
got to be entertaining or we are onto the next thing.Using video and a platform like YouTube
allows me to reach people all over the world.Video is engaging and grabs people - sometimes you can say more with an
image or video clip than you can with an entire thesis. And I keep my videos
rather brief because everyone can find a spare minute or two to watch
something. It takes very little effort on their part. I’ve also created a
website with accompanying blog posts to every video so that those who do want
to take the time to read and find more resources can do so. Basically, in
brief, I try to reach people at their level and allow them several options of
how they want to take in the information.

4. What do you think
are the biggest strengths of the vegan movement?

I think the biggest strength of the vegan movement is that we
have the truth on our side. There’s no way to logically justify what we do to
animals for our food, fashion, medicine, and entertainment. All the facts and
all the legitimate arguments are on our side. This is reflected in the
absurdity that often arises when people try to justify their behaviors.

5. What do you think
are our biggest hindrances to getting the word out effectively?

Sometimes I feel that the greatest hindrance to the vegan
movement is vegans. Unfortunately, as with every movement and every time a
group of people tries to accomplish something, there arises infighting and
fracturing off of different beliefs and approaches. I think we lose strength
when we argue with each other over petty distinctions.The veal calf who is awaiting slaughter
doesn’t care what semantic battle we might be having - he simply wants to live.
Vegans arguing with vegans about what veganism is becomes a level of cruelty
onto it’s own. To know what’s going on - to really have seen it and understood
what these animals are going through and still spend one’s time in meaningless
discussion and circular arguments is an absolute insult to the animals.

6. All of us need a
“why vegan” elevator pitch. We’d love to hear yours.

Honestly, I could go on about this for a long time, and I do
have a section on my website that details the health, environmental, and
ethical and moral reasoning behind veganism, but my true elevator pitch to the
question “why vegan?” is “why not?”Try
throwing that of someone who asks why you are vegan and see what their answer
is. I guarantee you there will not be any depth and weight behind it.

7. Who are the people
and what are the books, films, websites and organizations that have had the greatest
influence on your veganism and your continuing evolution?

The greatest influence in my life as far as my activism is
concerned is Gary Yourofsky.
I was vegan long before I first heard Gary’s speech, but he lit a fire inside
of me and gave me the tools I had desperately been searching for to make a
difference for the animals. He showed me that education was the number one way
to spread the message, and he helped me get out of myself and take action
regardless of my fear.

I never stop learning and educating myself and I have a full
library of books, too large to even detail here.I did find Dr. Charles Patterson’s Eternal Treblinkaparticularly influential.

8. Burn-out is so
common among vegans: what do you do to unwind, recharge and inspire yourself?

Ha! Unwind and recharge? Oh, yeah, I forgot about that…it’s
very true that burnout is common in this line of work. It is absolutely exhausting
and emotionally draining. But it is so worth it. Still the recharging aspect of
my life is something that I’m trying to work on and develop. I do realize its
importance and it’s something I really need to improve on. I do try to do a
little bit of yoga every day and, of course, spend time with my dog Ooby - though
at times that seems like indentured servitude - she has high expectations, that
one. :)

9. What is the issue
nearest and dearest to your heart that you would like others to know more about?

For me the issue is always the animals. It’s all about them.
I want people to know what they are experiencing. When you know that, I mean really know that, going vegan is no
longer a choice or an option, it is a necessity, a total no-brainer, and the
very least you can do. If you make that connection, you almost have no choice
but to become an activist.

Thursday, January 1, 2015

John and I are very excited to announce a new project through Vegan Street,
which is called Do Good and Be Seen in 2015, because we love a catchy
rhyme but we love to help empower people to create change even more. In so much
of our daily lives, we are beaten down. We look at the news (or our news feed,
which, ironically, many of us turn to for an escape) and we see example after
example of senseless brutality and disconnection. We see images, hear stories and
read what passes for conversations and these things rightfully scare us,
emotionally eviscerate us, and ultimately feed the cyclical feelings of disempowerment,
our bruised and battered hearts feeling more tender every day.

When we are coming from a place of such pain, it’s very hard to create change
in the world that is not tinted or fully shaped by the violent, bleak picture
we see. This means that what we are putting out into the world isn’t often formed
in our own kiln of creativity and intention but is instead reactive to what we
see. To change the direction of what we don’t like, hell, to create something
altogether different, we need to believe in and own our power. When we are
reactive, we are coming from a place of feeling stripped of our real power to
influence the world we inhabit: we are reacting, sometimes desperately, throwing
whatever rocks we can grab at the habituated disconnection that allows the
world to continue to tune out. The rocks, though, ding right off, making no
real difference at stopping disconnection on its hungry path, which makes
splinters of anything that allows it. A big part of what it chews through is our
own sense of knowing that we can effect change. When you are feeling beaten
down, helpless, hopeless and nihilistic, you are very close to despair if not already there. To me, despair is the
most wrenching worst of all emotions because despair acts as an echo chamber of
our pain and also claims that we are powerless to change it.

Despair is the worst. Despair tells us to not bother getting out of bed.
Despair tells us that our dreams are not worth trying. Despair tells us that it
doesn’t matter, that nothing ever changes, that we are screwed. Well, we are
here to say SCREW DESPAIR. Seriously. Nothing fosters disconnection more than
despair and you know what disconnection allows – indifference, cruelty,
discrimination, violence, cynicism. If you are like me, this will not do.

At Do Good and Be Seen, we are going to be posting 365 days worth of simple,
straightforward but effective action ideas that can add up to not only to your
personal antidote to despair but also to creating an ever-widening ripple of
positive change in the world. As we are a vegan website and as other animals
are so often not thought worthy of our consideration, the vast majority of the ideas will be
centered around creating positive change for animals but there will be others
shuffled in, too, as we are all interconnected. We have a sense of what we want
to accomplish but the whole picture will unfold as it evolves, and we are
hoping that you will be part of it. In fact, if we’re going to create change,
you will need to be part of it.

Let us know what you think as the project crawls out of the morass of this
sketchy idea and moves beyond our beta format. Please give us ideas for posting, your thoughts, your creativity,
your experience and time. In the meantime, thank you for caring and thank you
for acting on your power to create positive change in the world.